After painful rehabilitation, University Avenue residence regains gleam of authenticity
By Kaye Ross, Town Crier Staff Writer
 The Segerses’ unique Los Altos home is an example of a house built in the Craftsman style. photos by joe hu/town crier |
Debbie and Dennis Segers had been collecting Mission and Craftsman furniture and artwork for years, but their ranch home in Pleasanton provided a less than perfect canvas for its display. They began looking for a home to fit their furniture.
The Segerses also wanted to be closer to Santa Clara, where Dennis was then on the board of directors of Matrix Semiconductor Inc. He is now CEO and president.
They found their dream house on University Avenue in Los Altos. The 1915 home had a pedigree: It had been occupied much of its life by John B. Shenk, a prominent California Supreme Court justice, and his family. The interior oak beams and built-in bookcases remained in the 2,500-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-story home. The oak floors, inlaid with walnut, were in good shape. A 100-year-old Deodore Cedar graced one corner of the front yard. There was a full basement, which the sellers said had remained dry for their entire 25-year residency. And the wood-shingled house sat on three city lots. It was perfect.
Except for:
• The yard that had “gone wild,” as Debbie put it, behind a rickety chain-link fence held upright by a line of too-tall shrubs.
• The incongruous redwood deck that protruded from one side of the house like a W.C. Fields nose from a model’s face.
• The upstairs guest bedroom with a fireplace boxed off by an add-on closet that also hid a period stained-glass window.
• The garage that Debbie described as a shed so compromised that “if you would have put your hand against it, it literally would have fallen over.”
The Segerses bought the home in spring 2000 for $3.4 million, according to public records. Little did they know they were signing up for a four-year rehabilitation project.
The Los Altos Historical Commission asked the Segerses to keep the front in period style, but approved other changes. They knew they wanted to replace the garage and add a studio above it. They needed more room for a kitchen and family room, and they wanted to use two of the upstairs bedrooms for a master suite. They wanted to add the wood beams and other period decoration of the first floor to the barren second floor.
Dennis was doing research on the Internet one day when he happened upon a reference to Paul Duchscherer, an expert interior designer and historian who specializes in Craftsman style. Debbie thought they would never get Duchscherer’s attention because he was so prominent in his field. He has published two books and makes frequent appearances on HGTV.
They caught Duchscherer between projects. “When he got here and saw what it was, he said, ‘I’ll do it,’” Debbie said.
The Segerses wanted the new elements to blend seamlessly with the old. Duchscherer suggested they contract with nine members of Artistic License, a San Francisco guild of skilled artisans dedicated to period restorations and revivals. All the work is done by hand in the old-fashioned ways.
Duchscherer began drawing designs for each wall, and workers began dismantling the downstairs panel by panel to take everything down to the studs. Each piece of wood was removed, numbered and stored, and the floor was covered with plywood while the plumbing and electrical wiring was replaced.
Outdoors, the redwood deck was torn down, and a large sitting porch constructed. Done in muted shades of green and gray with spots of red and deep aqua accents, the porch has become the family’s outdoor living room. Nearby, water trickles over stones into a small, naturalized pond.
Continuing the outdoor living section is an exterior dining room of old stone, with a built-in grill and fireplace and seating areas for guests.
The three-lot-wide front yard was a long strip of lawn that needed something special. To break up the expanse, Duchscherer designed waist-high stone stanchions that divide the yard into a series of “rooms,” each with its own landscaping.
But it is the interior space that shows the attention to detail that sets this home apart. The Segerses have created a completely period-accurate home, from the wood accents to the clawfoot tub to the hand-carved panel covering the plasma television in the family room. They have achieved the hallmark of the Arts & Crafts Style - a total environment in which every piece works together to create a space that celebrates the grandeur of nature and the simplicity of authentic craftsmanship.
On the first floor, an archway separates two parts of a double parlor. Stickley reproductions and antique rocking chairs furnish the living room. Artistic License craftsmen created several handmade pieces, including a dresser in the second parlor that is decorated with hand-carved flowers that look like delicate pieces of light wood applied petal-by-petal to the face of the cabinet.
The kitchen is filled with period-style wood cabinets - even one housing a refrigerator - with a large farmer’s sink in the center of an island preparation area. Tiles with ginko designs create a frieze above a large counter.
The family room is dominated by a stone fireplace and the same wood. A small dining room follows the living room design. The full basement is a small suite.
Upstairs is a foyer distinguished by a skylight of stained glass. The master bedroom is a large, open room with a high ceiling created by wood beams meeting in the center above a Craftsman chandelier. The fireplace is ringed with matte Batchelder tiles in buff and aqua, showing nature scenes with palm trees. Even the bed linens are period style.
The master bath is a light-filled space with double sinks and handmade tile floor. A shower is the one bow to modernity.
When the closet was removed, the guest bedroom became a bright space with another magnificent tiled fireplace in the center. A study repeats the wood and period design of the living room.
Construction of the master bedroom alone took six weeks. And after it was finished, a worker came through to distress the new wood so it would continue the old-style feel of the downstairs.
All the work was worth it, Debbie says, but she’s not sure she would have gone forward if she’d known what the rehab was going to take. Some people do these old-home remodels sequentially, but for Debbie, “This project is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
